The system which is presently commonly used to handle and transport cases of beverage containers, for example, from a manufacturing and/or distributing center to a retailer, such as a grocery store, convenience store, etc. is inherently a laborious, time-consuming operation requiring numerous delivery vehicles and operators, each covering a rather limited region. The traditional system involves stacking large numbers of a given brand of containers onto large pallets at a distribution center, which are loaded into the exterior bay wells of specially designed delivery trucks.
Upon arrival at a retail site, the operator fills the particular order by selecting the particular brand and quantity of containers from the various bays and unloading them by hand onto a hand truck or wheeled dolly for transport into the facility of the retailer. It takes considerable time to fill an order in this manner inasmuch as it requires an operator to select the appropriate brand and quantity of containers called for by the order, and then to physically remove the various containers from the bays, restack them onto the hand truck or dolly, and transport the containers from the delivery truck into the retail facility.
A principal object of the present invention is to provide a more efficient system for getting products from the point of manufacture or distribution to the retailer.
A transport and delivery system constructed and operated according to the invention utilizes a series of wheeled carts having upstanding back and side retention members or walls, which have been loaded at a manufacturing and/or distribution facility with stacks of containers advantageously pre-sorted by brand and quantity according to the orders to be filled. These stacks are preferably built on mini-pallets such that a given cart may be loaded with one or several (four for example) of such mini-stacks.
The location of each pre-filled order is recorded as to which cart or carts are involved, and as to the particular location of the stack or stacks within the carts. For example, a given order might be contained in cart No. 4, stacks 1-3. Once filled with product, the carts are wheeled into an elongate delivery van or trailer of conventional manufacture and positioned so that the carts line the opposite walls of the trailer in two laterally spaced rows leaving a center aisle down the middle of the trailer wide enough to access the carts with a two-wheeled hand truck.
The cart floors are supported above the level of the floor of the trailer on wheels or other appropriate motive supports. A false floor is provided along the aisle to elevate the walkway to the level of the cart floors, so that an operator, using a two-wheeled hand truck, is able to access the mini-stacks in the carts with the hand truck. The false floor is provided by opposing sets of retractable deck sections carried off the forward edge of each cart which can be moved into the aisle to form an elevated sectionalized walkway. The deck sections have automatically folded and restored front support leg structures.
The deck sections are disclosed as including at least one gas spring operative to assist an operator to move the deck sections between the extended and stowed positions. The springs also exert a constant downward biasing force on the deck sections which serves to maintain them in position during transport over any rough terrain and further act to retain the deck sections in the stowed and use positions.
The trailer van, which opens at its back end, is fitted with a powered lift gate that can be raised to the level of the floor of the trailer. The false floor is thus supported above the level of the lift gate. According to a further aspect of the invention, a ramp is positioned between the false floor and lift gate to provide a transition from the elevated false floor to the lift gate. The ramp preferably includes a foldable section that, in use, extends out of the trailer and onto the lift gate and, when stowed, is hinged inwardly of the trailer van to accommodate closing of the back door(s) of the trailer.
According to the operation of the system, the carts, once loaded into and locked in the trailer, are transported along with the hand truck from the manufacturing and/or distribution center to the various retail delivery sites. Since the orders for each site are pre-built according to the type and quantity of the various brands of beverages or other products, the operator need only locate the order, remove the mini-stack(s) of containers from the cart(s) with the hand truck, and wheel the load(s) along the elevated false floor formed by the deck sections, down the ramp and onto the elevated lift gate, which is then lowered to the ground to enable the operator to wheel the order into the facility of the business receiving them. When the deliveries are completed, the emptied trailer is returned to the distribution center where the deck sections are returned to their stowed positions, and the empty carts are unlocked and removed from the trailer. The trailer can then be loaded with a waiting set of carts pre-loaded with additional orders, and the off-loaded emptied carts can be recycled to handle future orders.
Considerable labor and time is saved with this system, enabling delivery personnel to service a greater number of retail customers in a given region, complete their routes in less time, and service expanded territories.